


Tim Drake, Who Left His Phone at Home and Suffered Dearly

by stevieraebarnes



Category: DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics)
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), Brief Language, Epistolary, Gen, M/M, Past Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake, Some Humor, Sort Of, implied JayDick, jaydick-flashfic: text messages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22234186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stevieraebarnes/pseuds/stevieraebarnes
Summary: Tim forgets his phone over the weekend and returns to Gotham to find Stephanie Brown has live texted him an incident.Or, Tim is finally enrolled at Gotham Tech and continues to navigate the intersecting hub of social, academic, and vigilante life. Not easy to do when your friends ask you to join their out-of-town stealth ops and your family is clearly working through some issues.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Comments: 24
Kudos: 177
Collections: Jaydick Flash Fanwork Challenge





	Tim Drake, Who Left His Phone at Home and Suffered Dearly

Tim dropped his duffle bag onto the floor and rolled his shoulders, attempting to release the tension clinging to his muscles. He flicked on the lights to his apartment and saw that the one bedroom studio was still in the final extreme of apathetic disorder. The bed wasn’t just unmade but an artifact of a sleeper who simply piles on more blankets when others slip to the floor during the night. Additionally, clothes draped themselves over various surfaces: bed, desk, dresser, and kitchen countertop, all giving the impression they'd simply gone as far as they could and then died on the spot.

He had only been gone seventy-two hours for a last minute team mission, but that time away illuminated the mess in only the way absence could. Tim grabbed an armful of clothes and shoved them into a hamper in some pantomime of neatening. It wasn’t so much that the untidiness bothered him — it didn’t in the slightest. He just knew philosophically that he _should_ care and therefore made a passing attempt at correction. There. Good enough. If only the team could see him now.

Relearning to work in tandem with his own Teen Titans was less like riding a bicycle and more like trying to remember a complicated choreography they used to perform as they had all changed so much. But they’d gotten there in the end and the camaraderie had come, too. He missed that systemic trust — something he noticed more now in his latest endeavor with Gotham Tech — and he missed the respect he’d gained with his teammates over the years as a leader and equal, something he rarely got with his family considering their ward/mentee order.

He looked around his empty apartment again and resolved to hang up his vigilante cap for that of a student. He had classes in the morning and he was severely lacking in sleep as the mission had focused on surveillance. But before he could fall onto his bed and let sleep overtake him, his eye spotted something he'd been without over the weekend. On the desk, nestled between papers and loose batteries, Tim found his mobile phone which he had left behind in his haste. It hadn’t actually mattered, though he felt better knowing where it was. His phone was encrypted and he didn’t like devices on his person while suited up anyways. Not when his Red Robin tech included communication features.

He hit the power button and the screen lit up to show battery life at thirty-two percent. He opened a drawer from the desk he’d found the phone on and rooted around for the charger. Upon finding it he promptly plugged it in and powered on his phone. Initially all was well. Cell service, wifi, and data blinked into existence and settled. And then—

One new message.

Two new messages.

Four, eight, twenty, fifty-nine new text messages.

Tim opened the messaging app and immediately scrolled to the earliest unread text.

A rewards card message. Fuck, this was going to be agonizing. He deleted the spam and moved on.

Next on the messaging list read from fellow student Caitlin.

Caitlin - GTU  
  
**Friday** 8:23 PM  
**Caitlin:** Heyyy did you pick up the textbook for CHE194? Bookstores out of copies *sobs*  
Next shipment is in 2 wks. 1st quiz is in 2 wks...  
Don't make me give money to Bezos  
Oh shit sorry if he's a family friend or something  


Tim laughed. He could just picture her startled face, aghast at accidentally offending someone but not actually sorry for her words. He quickly texted back.

**Caitlin:** Oh shit sorry if he's a family friend or something  
**Tim:** No worries, not a family friend. And I got you covered with the textbook. I'll be on campus by 10 tmr. I'll make you some copies  
  


Tim had finally committed to Gotham Technical University and while he was still navigating the ease of leadership roles, he found himself flourishing in a new and unexpected way. He had realized almost immediately how much he enjoyed the work; the exercises his classes offered, the many tiers of learning his professors could offer and advise on. He found that he also enjoyed when a student would out of the blue ask if Tim knew of some idea. For example, _did you know that lit candles give off light and heat because the wick’s molecules are literally exploding?_ someone would ask and Tim would acknowledge that he did know, but usually answered with a pleasant laugh at the student’s honest enthusiasm. It was so different from the closely guarded personas he was raised by and then molded into himself. _My mind is blown_ the student would continue, miming explosions with erratic hands. _I've got little bombs all over my coffee table._

Tim saw the next message was from Dick.

Dick  
  
**Saturday** 12:01 PM  
**Dick:** You around this weekend? Might need your help  
Heard you're called for. Good luck! Bring me back a souvenir. Maybe a street artist depiction of how it goes down lol  


He felt bad—he wished he’d picked him up something, especially since Dick would unironically love whatever he presented him with and display it proudly somehow. Tim frowned, thinking if he could somehow still get him something. Maybe just a meal out together to talk about the mission and what’s been going on lately with the other Bats. He’d been out of the loop more than he was used to. And as the gold standard of snooping, being out of the loop grated on Tim frequently.

The next message brought a loud, extravagant groan from the depths of Tim’s soul.

01835  
  
**Saturday** 1:52 PM  
**01835:** Your card has been flagged due to recent transactions. Please log in to your account to confirm your activity or call the number located on the back of your card.  


Great. More work to do. And not the fun kind. He moved on to the elephant in the text messaging room.

He tapped on Steph’s name, which showed a bold subscript number of forty-six, and unleashed a slew of purple messages.

Steph  
  
**Saturday** 3:45 PM  
**Steph:** Hey where you at today?  
Do you have weekend plans?  
I'm not allowed in the He Man Woman Haters Club anymore, remember? I need answers  
Also Babs is busy. Busy with He Man stuff  


He kept scrolling, well versed in Stephanie Brown’s trade mark pleasantries.

**Steph:** TIMMMM  
WHERE ARE YOU  
Seriously there is some weird shit going down  
Cass doesn't have a phone. I'm gonna have to call Harper but I don't wanna  
DONT TELL HER I SAID THAT  
Dick isn't answering either. I'll have you know I texted you first. That should count for something  
Also we dated. That should also count for something  
God no wonder we broke up  


_Ow. Jesus._

**Steph:** Okay seriously something is going on in downtown Gotham. It looks like a turf war, but there might also be a hostage situation  
TIM SERIOUSLY  
A HOSTAGE SITUATION  
No one is answering me and I'm tired of always being "the fired Robin." Do you know what it's like to be the only Robin that was fired??  
ITS THE WORST  


At that point, Tim knew she was only getting started. He scrolled some more.

**Steph:** There are more members of the Dead Robins Club. THERE ARE THREE  
You don't count. You were just missing  
Dick doesn't count either. Too quick a recovery  


Tim’s eyes widened at the words. Well. Tim usually enjoyed Steph’s blunt banter, just not always when he was on the receiving end of her pronouncements. He figured Dick wouldn't appreciate the assessment either. He flicked his index finger over the screen and found she had thankfully moved on to live-texting the situation instead of continuing on about downgrading his traumatic kidnapping event to a minor inconvenience.

**Steph:** Okay it looks like Penguin's involved. Great. He's feuding with some newbie who thinks he's hot shit  
His outfit's ridiculous. The newbie. Penguin's always had style  
Okay I've spotted several plainclothes GCPD. Looks like Jim's trying to go with friendly surprise here  
lmao good luck Jim  


And then,

**Steph:** A HOSTAGE IS COMING OUT!! I KNEW IT!  
Oh my fucking god  
It's Jason  
What the fuck  
I mean it's clearly Jason. Civilian Jason  
Wow. He looks good. Damn. Been awhile  


Tim rolled his eyes at her antics.

**Steph:** I love the moto jacket  
Wait...is he wearing those hockey butt pants???  
They're nice  
Oh no  
There's a commotion. Something. No someone  
Oh goddammit Dick  


_What? What was happening?_ Tim gripped his phone tighter and narrowed his eyes at the screen, demanding more information. Steph delivered. Sort of.

**Steph:** I don't know what's going on anymore. Dick slipped past a bunch of people only to grab Jason by the face and KISS HIM. HARD  
???  
THEY ARE MAKING OUT RIGHT NOW  
No wait  
Weapons have been lowered and the swarm of people are kinda shuffling around awkwardly  
OH SHIT  
Batman's just taken out 10 dudes already. Robin and Batgirl's there too. Hold on. Suiting up  


Tim paused with her; it had been easy to get caught up in the drama of yesterday's event. So Dick had decided kissing Jason was a good cause for distraction, huh? And Jason simply let him? They both seemed to enjoy it? Hmm, they were bound to take solace in each other eventually, he figured. They had a good rapport. Tim just hoped that Dick didn't disregard the public affection; he knew Jason would take it personally.

  
  
**Saturday** 6:17 PM  
**Steph:** Okay. That was intense. Dami yelled at Dick for 10 mins straight over The Kiss™  
You missed out on a good one. Dick said you're on a team op  
Oh yeah you told me. Sorry. I forgot  
That kiss looked pretty passionate. Just sayin  


Tim smiled at the transpiration of events. All’s well that ends well, he supposed.

Four messages remained and Tim was surprised to see they were from Jason, of all people, and not that long ago.

Jason  
  
**Today** 5:45 PM  
**Jason:** What's the name of that weird song  
Nvm Dick said it's yum yum breakfast burrito  
Now you know the manner in which I will torment you  
But you don't know when  


He blinked once at the words in front of him before simply hitting the back button. Dick and Jason were still speaking together it seemed so Tim moved on to navigate to Dick’s thread of messages again. He tapped out a reply: _Back from mission, went smoothly. Want to meet for a meal soon?_ He then returned to Steph’s messages and sent, _We’re discussing texting etiquette tomorrow_ and _I can’t believe you forgot I was out of town_ and finally, _Dick and Jason. Wow. But also, called it._

He ignored Jason’s texts.

He clicked the screen off and set the phone back down on the desk to continue charging, finally giving his attention to the bed he hoped would envelop him. He crashed onto the piles of blankets and fell asleep to thoughts of how he’d been part of a successful team up the last couple of days, but that he was glad to be back, too. That he was glad his family had thought of him while he was away. And as the beautiful darkness of sleep started to take him, he had one hazy thought of, _dear god, where is that saccharine music coming from?_ and from the depths of his shuttering consciousness Tim knew that Jason had made good on his promise. _Perhaps it would be a good idea to retaliate by teasing him about The Kiss,_ his brain thought idiotically.

Perhaps.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun working with the iOS work skin for this fic as well as just putting Tim through the horror of coming back to find he's missed a bajillion messages on his phone xD I basically just wrote out texts and then stitched in a story as best I could.
> 
> Unbeta'd. Please excuse any mistakes. I'm sure I'll tinker with this over the next few days lol. Gotham Tech and Tim's kidnapping are in reference to the first volume of Rebirth's Detective Comics trade.
> 
> Also, many apologies for the only implied jaydick I just had too much fun writing Steph yelling over text j-j


End file.
